Although the use of games, simulations and immersive environments have been explored by numerous EU projects in order to promote the commission’s goal of promoting language learning and linguistic diversity, it is still not clear how best to integrate them in effective language learning environments in the primary and secondary school sectors. Moreover, while digital games increasingly preoccupy the social lives of many young people, educators do not have a clear picture of how best to replicate the levels of motivation, creativity agency and enjoyment they experience during the game experience. Although previous generations of digital games have been criticised for promoting unhealthy or solitary lifestyles in young children and teenagers, the recent prominence of more affordable forms of augmented and virtual reality through such games as Pokemon Go, as well as multiplayer networked games such as World of Warcraft, demonstrate that they can be used to promote learner engagement beyond the four walls of the school classroom. The GUINEVERE project addresses the Erasmus+ challenge to promote importance of language learning in addition to their mother tongue by harnessing the potential of digital technologies to promote play and creativity in order to learn new languages. Through digital play in authentic immersive environments primary and secondary school students have the opportunity to learn about important forms of digital and collaborative literacy that are vital not only for their future employability but for their whole person development. Since coming to prominence over the last decade immersive learning has gone through several iterations of popularity but has often been marginalised in educational environments due to the cost and expertise required. As a result of appearance of more affordable devices such as Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard and the widespread use of smartphones and tablets, immersive learning has been identified by the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe (ECML) as an opportunity to provide authentic materials, enable direct contact with other learners and teachers, and promote connectivity. Through the GUINEVERE project language teachers and learners will be trained to create their own digital games by transferring them to immersive environments such as virtual worlds, augmented and virtual reality game platforms, and casual games for mobile devices. The skills which teachers need to master are building, adding sound, texture and scripts, recycling 3D objects and designing games, role-plays, simulations and scenarios.
The two-year GUINEVERE project (see our website: http://guinevereproject.eu/) addressed the context of how to use digital games and the principles of gamification in 3D immersive environments to encourage new ways for primary and secondary school children and teachers to learn and teach foreign languages (primarily English, French and Turkish). Though games are increasingly high profile in the media and in education, the debate is often polarised between advocates who perceive games as an aid to creativity and collaborative learning, and critics who perceive them as disruptive, divisive or even catalysts for violent behaviour and addiction. There has been a lot of practitioner research and projects across the EU in the last ten years, but few have closely examined the potential in foreign language learning in a diverse range of languages or developed teacher training courses to help teachers examine these challenges. In this respect the GUINEVERE project was unique, innovative and ground breaking. Arising from this context, GUINEVERE established four main objectives across 14 Intellectual Outputs (IOs): 1) it investigated the findings of existing work on the use of games in schools education through a comprehensive understanding of pedagogical theory, the use of games and simulations, the categorisation of games, and guidelines available to teachers; 2) it designed, created and field-tested a variety of games in 3D immersive worlds, particularly in the 3D platforms of Minecraft, OpenSim and Second Life, that also drew on recent work in gamification and learning analytics; 3) it designed, created and field-tested two, free online language teacher training courses which enabled teachers to create their own digital games for use in the three 3D immersive environments (OpenSim, Minecraft and Second Life). The courses successfully integrated the skills which teachers need to master, such as building, coding, adding sound, texture and scripts, recycling 3D objects and designing games, role-plays, simulations and scenarios; and 4) it designed and created a mobile application that integrates the principles of language learning and gamification. In relation to the number, type and profile of participants, the target groups involved primary and secondary school children and teachers in the UK, Turkey and Italy. The children and adolescents were aged between 10 and 15. In Italy partner IUL drew on its existing pedagogical research on the OpenSim environment Edmondo with children from as young as six years old in primary and secondary schools in Milan, Florence and Padova to undertake extensive field-testing with classes including approximately 20 children. The partner and coordinator UCLAN worked with a UK primary school in a disadvantaged area of Preston in the North West of England using Minecraft to teach digital literacy skills and French language learning involving an out of class club of around 6-10 pupils. In Turkey partner IUC worked with over 50 trainee English language teachers, field-testing a mobile application and teaching the principles of games design. The project's main activities reflected those of our objectives and consisted of several interlocking phases of development. Over the lifecycle of the project, activities were divided into three distinct phases: In Phase 1, the project partners met to discuss the creation of example immersive digital games drawing on traditional games with high value for problem-solving, creativity, collaboration and communication. These were contextualised with the aid of an extensive needs analysis with teachers, teacher trainers and learners and as a result of a thorough review of existing good practice. Guidelines for all key stakeholders were produced to guide the next phase. In Phase 2, digital game-based materials were created in the context of project-based learning. These were then trialled among a variety of data partners and adapted where necessary. Phase 3 built on the outcomes from the previous two phases and led to an extensive piloting of two, free online teacher training courses (one intended for autonomous learning and one for instructed facilitation) which offered expert advice on the technical and pedagogical approaches used. The courses were successfully offered in the form of a MOOC or massive online training course. Finally, IUC, our partner in Istanbul, developed a mobile application called GISTORY to develop interactive game-based learning which utilised gamification techniques and video-based learning and is available on Android and iOS platforms. GISTORY stands for 'gamified interactive stories'. Overall, GUINEVERE adopted a 'critical advocacy' approach to the use of digital games in language learning and identified several limitations (technical, pedagogical, methodological and institutional) as well as areas worthy of further exploration in future projects in the European context.